Unexpected attacks, whether on our families, communities or nation, unite us. Pearl Harbor, for example, sparked long-delayed entry into all-consuming world war.
But few events united us Americans so much as al-Qaeda’s shocking attacks on what we now simply call “9/11.” The horrific loss of life when the World Trade Center collapsed and the subsequent rescue efforts pulled together a shocked and bereaved nation.
For me, the truest example of nobility came from the 40 passengers and flight crew on highjacked United Flight 93. They knew what had happened, that a catastrophic number of people were dead. They knew, one way or the other, they were likely doomed.
So, together, they rushed the cockpit, forcing the terrorists to crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All aboard died. “I think an act of heroism just took place on that plane,” then-Vice President Dick Cheney said.
What’s since been lost is how necessary such selflessness and self-sacrifice are to our nation. We’re so polarized, partisan and traumatized that we’ve lost our unity.
Perhaps we can use this 25th anniversary of 9/11 to regain it.
On Getting Along
‘Division in the American House’
I read this — and memorialize today — with the sense of deep irony. Newspapers dominated the reporting of the events on Sept. 11, compiling the gritty details of what happened, how it happened and who died in the process. Their work was powerful, important and irreplaceable. This is all juxtaposed against headline stories about layoffs at two large newspaper chains that strip local journalism from the pubic marketplace. It is like the towers fell anew.
Steve, you speak truth. A hard truth.